vite-plugin-react-server

React Server Components for plain Vite on stable React — no framework, no experimental builds. One vite build --app prerenders your pages to static HTML + RSC payloads and emits your components as portable ESM that runs under any HTTP server: static hosting, Express/Hono, or anything in between.

It works in BOTH Node module conditions, by design: the dev server and the build run with or without --conditions react-server, and whichever side your main thread is on, a worker thread mirrors the other half (server components need a react-server context, client hydration needs a react-client one — you always have both). Running the main thread under react-server is an optional optimization — slightly faster, better stack traces — never a requirement.

Install

npm install -D vite-plugin-react-server react react-dom

vprs 2.0 runs on stable React 19.2+. The react-server-dom-esm transport ships inside the react-server-loader dependency (installed automatically), so you no longer install a transport or an experimental React build yourself. Upgrading from 1.x? See the migration notes.

Minimal Example

// vite.config.ts
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import { vitePluginReactServer } from "vite-plugin-react-server";

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: vitePluginReactServer({
    moduleBase: "src",
    Page: "src/page.tsx",
    build: { pages: ["/"] },
  }),
});

// src/page.tsx
export const Page = ({ url }: { url: string }) => <div>Hello from {url}</div>;

# Dev server
npx vite

# Build (static site + server/client ESM)
npx vite build --app

# Same build, react-server main thread — optional: a bit faster, better stack traces
NODE_OPTIONS='--conditions react-server' vite build --app

Build Output

dist/
├── static/          # Deployable to any static host
│   ├── index.html   # Pre-rendered HTML
│   └── index.rsc    # RSC payload for client navigation
├── client/          # Client-side ESM modules (for SSR)
└── server/          # Server-side ESM modules (with server actions)

dist/static/ is a complete static site. dist/client/ and dist/server/ are ESM modules you can import in your own Express/Hono/Node server.

Client components

vprs recognises a file as a client module when either of these is true:

• the filename matches (^|[\/.])client\.[cm]?[jt]sx?$ — i.e. Button.client.tsx, bar.client.mjs, or the standalone basename src/client.tsx / client.tsx, or
• the file starts with a top-of-file "use client" directive (leading whitespace, line/block comments, and an optional "use strict" prologue are tolerated above it).

Either is sufficient. Substrings like clientUtils.tsx, clientId.ts, or clients.tsx are not treated as client modules, and a "use client" directive placed after real code does not count.

// src/components/Counter.tsx  ← no `.client.` suffix needed
"use client";
import { useState } from "react";
export function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>;
}

See Getting Started.

Third-party client-component packages

Component libraries like Chakra UI, MUI, Mantine, react-aria, and framer-motion are client-only — their components rely on React context/state and must run inside a client boundary, the same constraint they carry under Next.js's App Router. Use them within a "use client" component (commonly a small provider wrapper); they can't be imported directly into a server component. This isn't a vprs limitation — e.g. Chakra's own Next.js App Router guide requires wrapping ChakraProvider in a 'use client' component.

vprs auto-detects these so they're treated correctly at build start: any package with react in its peerDependencies is classified as a client package (using vitefu.crawlFrameworkPkgs). Two escape hatches if needed:

vitePluginReactServer({
  // Force a package into the list (e.g. one that doesn't peerDep react)
  clientPackages: ["@my/internal-ui"],
  // Skip a detected one (e.g. devDeps Storybook bringing along @storybook/react)
  excludeClientPackages: ["@storybook/react", "@storybook/react-vite"],
});

Storybook

vprs ships a Storybook preset — add one line and your RSC app's components build and render in Storybook:

// .storybook/main.ts
export default {
  framework: { name: "@storybook/react-vite", options: {} },
  addons: ["vite-plugin-react-server/storybook"],
};

It strips the vprs plugin from Storybook's builder, resolves the react-server-dom-esm transport (from react-server-loader), and silences "use client"/"use server" directive noise. See Storybook for details. (Requires vprs ≥ 1.9.0.)

Documentation

Internals (contributors)

Maintenance

Requirements

• Node.js 22.0.0+ (the build uses node:fs/promises#glob, which landed in 22)
• Stable React 19.2+ (react / react-dom at ^19.2.7). As of 2.0 the RSC server APIs vprs relies on (prerenderToNodeStream, the react-server transport exports) are part of stable React, so no experimental build is required. The matching react-server-dom-esm transport is provided by the react-server-loader dependency; experimental React still works if you want the newest RSC features. See React Compatibility.
• Vite 6+

TypeScript

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "types": ["vite/client", "vite-plugin-react-server/virtual"]
  }
}

License

MIT